![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() The industry seems to have decided that bash protection broadly isn't needed anymore bash guards are rarely seen on bikes with less than about 170mm of travel. The cow came through windshield and killed the 2 in front.Even 180mm bikes often don't bother with a bash guide these days. They hit a cow at night on 395 near Bishop. In high school, 3 of my friends were heading to Mammoth to ski. Someone mentioned animals coming through windshields. Totaled my bike, and I was covered in blood, but unhurt! Amazing part? 2 dead deer and I did not crash!!! Brake and hang on.Hit the first near dead center, then into the second one behind it. They jumped out of a ravine about 30 feet in front of me. Last fathers day, I had 2 deer jump out in front of me on my Honda VFR street bike while going 50-60 mph. I have hit 2 deer since the ARB, all under 40 MPH, but no damage to me or the 60. First was very lucky for me and my 60, as the deer slipped, and I more ran it over with no damage. Even being aware, I have collided with 3 deer over the years in our 60 LandCruiser. I also like to fish early and late, both prime times for deer to move about. We spend a lot of time each year in an area with lots of deer. I do know ARB (just as an example) has a lot of real world and lab crash data to draw upon.Ī couple examples of my own experiences with deer and vehicles. How that factors into a bumper or guard design I couldn't say. So reducing the speed from responding to a call at 100 MPH and put yourself a bit higher and the outcome changes.Īn 80,000 lbs over the road tractor-trailer can absorb hitting a deer and safely direct it down and under or carry something big and heavy enough to just deal with it (like a locomotive's cow catcher) while that may not be true of a passenger vehicle. The reason ARB (just as an example) designs their bull bars to deflect up or down is in the Outback you can survive a few days driving with a dented hood and cracked windshield while a punctured radiator or torn off suspension spindle are real problems. Consider the implication of not having that nudge bar in this case just in terms of where the damage would have occurred. Only speculating but the deputy was probably moving really fast and hit a sizable deer. Given enough mass and velocity it's impossible to escape a big enough collision with zero damage. But look at the size of the wings ahead of the headlights, closer (or maybe the same) 1.75" as the ARB.Ĭlick to expand.There's a matter of physics here. If the center is built to carry a winch it's probably going to be fairly strong. Or the ones like you see on USFS ranger trucks, like the Warn or I think a Westin HD something. The Ranch Hands are the only grill guards that I think might provide some protections, at least in the middle they seem rigid. But an ARB weighs 100 lbs and come with 15 lbs of hardware to mount. Hit something large enough and you can still lose headlights, dent sheet metal but the radiator, suspension, etc. They will bend but there's substantial amounts of steel and the mass is deflected up or down away from the critical parts in the front. The ARB bull bar is designed for this purpose and when you compare them to the Westin (or similar) appearance bars it should be obvious. Just realize there are two types of front end protection with respect to animal strikes. They weigh next to nothing, are held on with a couple of bolts. I'm not wild about the looks of any bar I've seen on my F150, and I'm not convinced that they help all that much.īrush guards are called damage multipliers around here. In your experience, are brush bars an effective means of protecting a vehicle from large animal strikes? Does it decrease damage enough to justify the cost ($1500+) of the bars? Or do they contribute to damage by smashing other bits and possibly transferring force to the frame that might not have been otherwise? Discuss. So I thought I'd ask the forum here - probably the widest net of brush bar enthusiasts I could think of. But every vehicle I've ever seen that hit a deer while running a brush bar still had a ton of damage, either from off-angle hits, deer parts going through the bars, or from the bars being slammed back into the grill/headlights/hood. When asked about the brush bars they usually tell me it's to prevent damage from hitting whitetail deer - we have a LOT of them down here, often well over 100lbs. A lot of the guys in my area (SE US) that have brush bars on their vehicles never set a tire in the dirt. ![]()
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